U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze and Georgian Foreign Minister Davit Bakradze in Brussels on March 6.

Burjanadze, speaking on Georgian TV after the talks, said: “As always happens during talks with our friends, the conversation was very friendly. We talked about developments in Georgia, about future plans and tasks to further strengthen and develop democratic values [in Georgia]. Of course, we also talked about Georgia’s relations with NATO. We stressed that it was very important for Georgia to take another step [closer] to the alliance at the [NATO] summit in Bucharest [this April]. Our American friends understand very well how important it is for Georgia’s further development. At the same time, we also raised the conflict regions and I thanked Ms. Rice for the, I would say, very appropriate statement she made about [South] Ossetia. I also informed [her] about the statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry today [about lifting economic sanctions on breakaway Abkhazia]. This statement is totally unacceptable and alarming and I hope that it will be followed by an appropriate response from our American and European friends.”